Sleep and hence relaxation techniques are vitally important in today's overstimulated and highly stressed world.
Eye masks with a light-tight design which provides a condition of total darkness are known to help stimulate melatonin production and thus serve to promote a state of sleep. The agitation of the prospective sleeper due to such factors as worries about job stress, disease, aging and children etc. is often enough to prevent the attainment of the sleep state notwithstanding use of such melatonin producing light-tight eye masks.
It is known art to provide an array of vertically spaced apart photoluminescent stripes of blue/green color in the eye cavities of a light-tight sleep mask that may be used as a template to direct and fix the eyes in such a way as to promote relaxation and induce sleep. The blue and green colors, however, have been shown by medical studies to reduce melatonin production and thus help prevent people from falling asleep, especially when the blue and green color is bright. What is needed are photoluminescent stripes of colors that do not have an intrinsic waking effect.
In use, the eyes of the wearer of such prior art sleep masks are directed in sequence from the lowest stripe upwardly through each next stripe and the gaze of the eyes is fixed on an uppermost one of the photoluminescent blue and green stripes. A meditative one-pointedness of mind, that is induced by fixing the gaze on an uppermost one of the photoluminescent blue/green stripes, counteracts any present mental agitation to induce the kind of equipoise that is conducive to sleep. Once charged, the photoluminescent stripes decay at their own rate and their lingering brightness may materially affect melatonin production. What is needed is a way to control the brightness and/or to eliminate any undesirable effects of lingering brightness.
The sequence of directing the eyes of the wearer of such prior art sleep masks from the lowermost stripes upwardly and of fixing the eyes on uppermost ones of the photoluminescent stripes of blue/green color is subject to distraction and to misdirection. What is needed is a way to guide the requisite upward sequencing and fixing motion from lower to uppermost stripes that allows anyone at any time to fix their gaze on an uppermost stripe in a manner that prevents distraction and misdirection.
The array of vertically spaced photoluminescent stripes of blue/green color of such prior art sleep masks serves as a template by means of which the requisite sequencing and fixation is performed. What is needed is an object that in its intrinsic presentation of itself tends to induce a meditative one-pointedness of mind that counteracts agitation to induce the kind of relaxation that is conducive to sleep but does not require any performative steps on behalf of the wearer in order to induce relaxation and sleep.
The one-pointedness of mind counteracting agitation of such prior art sleep masks that is induced by the wearer's intentionally directed eye motion upwardly along the array of photoluminescent stripes of blue/green color and fixation of the gaze upon uppermost ones of the array of photoluminescent elements of blue/green color may not work for everyone every time. What is needed are selectably alternative ways to counteract agitation to induce relaxation and sleep to make the benefits of relaxation available to more people more often.